quiet1

Right, I want to know how to minimize it reasonably without causing major problems with flavor. (I accidentally made bread without salt once. It was gross.) So I was hoping they might discuss the role or roles salt plays in bread besides just making stuff taste salty - retards the yeast? Has some influence on gluten development? I dunno. But my thought was if I had a better idea of the science of things I’d be more able to look at a new recipe and make an educated guess at how much I can reduce the salt/sodium content without ruining the bread. It’s really hard to buy bread thst’s Low sodium, so trying to make bread for my mom seems a reasonable thing to attempt. (And honestly, basic bread is not where I want to be getting most of my daily sodium, either. I don’t watch like my mom does, but having to check sodium content for her has resulted in everyone weeding out some unnecessarily salty stuff just because you kind of go ‘wow, that’s a lot of sodium’ when you look at the nutrition information.)

Do they touch on salt in an appreciable way? I know salt is needed to make bread tasty, but my mom is on a low sodium diet and most commercial bread is insanely salty. It’d be nice to have an idea how much salt is actually likely NECESSARY in a recipe versus to the recipe writer’s taste preferences.

‘The most techie person in this house is also a MASSIVE pen and paper nerd. And a software developer/networking geek. Our house is weird.

‘Ooh. I’m going to have to see if I can track some down.

We have one but mostly only use it for music and timers - we tried asking questions a few times but it comes up with such dumb answers I’ve given up. I also wouldn’t trust it to follow along a recipe for me, no matter what they claim in commercials. I do have a smartphone but the benefit of Alexa (a dot specifically) is it’s in the kitchen, not wandering off with whomever set the timer, so if a timer goes off someone near the kitchen can respond to it. There’s pretty much always someone in hearing distance of the kitchen Alexa so that works out.

‘To make proper tasting ice cream you really need more milk fat than is in milk. Does Lactaid make a cream? (We’re lucky if we can find regular Lactaid around me.) That said, I suppose you could possibly increase the fat content with something like coconut cream if you can make it work with the flavor. Or avocado? Has to be something with a good mouthfeel, though - cheap ice creams use vegetable fat that leaves a greasy sort of filmy feeling in the mouth, not enjoyable. Or you can ask if goat milk is okay, and see if you can get goat cream if it is? (My mom is crazy lactose intolerant but apparently there’s something different about goat or sheep milk so she’s okay with it, go figure. Definitely it’s the lactose, though, she doesn’t have a milk allergy.) I do recall seeing a chocolate ice cream recipe that used avocado somewhere or another. If you go sorbet I’d try to take advantage of making it at home by going a bit different with flavors - I’ve made pomegranate sorbet that worked out well (don’t think I have the recipe but I could look around) although you didn’t really want a huge scoop of it because it is a strong flavor. Went very well with nice crispy vanilla cookies. (I suspect ginger would also be a good flavor pairing.) Or something with some herbs maybe, like a lemon thyme or a strawberry basil?

I’m intrigued but I agree about the handles being a problem.

‘Good surprise. I’m supposed to pick out some pasta attachments for it, too. (They weren’t sure if they were good or not so they didn’t get them right away.) So once I get it set up it’ll be carb overload at our house.

Why has this never occurred to me? I’m going to try that ASAP. I did well this year. My SO and my mom conspired to get me a Kitchen Aid mixer and various accessories. I also got an Avengers waffle iron which, in addition to being geeky fun, makes nicely toaster shaped squares, so I can freeze some and toast them on days I don’t feel up to cooking breakfast.

My mom wanted to cram in as many good luck foods as she could so we did pork and sausage cooked in apple cider with sauerkraut and onion and apple, and I made a version of Texas caviar, and we bought a new year’s pretzel. Also made mashed potatoes to go with the pork. Tomorrow will be leftovers.

We had pork nachos for Christmas Eve, which is family tradition, but everyone was sick or getting sick on Christmas Day so we had a good breakfast and skipped the big dinner. Big dinner x2 happened since then. For one we had rack of lamb with a mustard cream sauce, hasselback potatoes, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts. For the second (the one i’d planned for Christmas Day) we had roast duck with Bourdain’s a l’orange sauce, mashed potatoes, more Brussels sprouts, green beans almandine, and an extra sauce for the duck I made up with tart dried cherries and a splash of brandy. All meals were very successful. The duck was maybe a touch overdone (I was going for slow roasted but our oven is having temperature troubles again} but everyone really liked it and we’ve never had duck before, so we’re definitely going to do that again. Maybe with more of a Peking Duck approach next time.

Favorite method for slow roasting? I’m finding recipes with times from 1.5 hours (? How is that slow?) to 7 or so.

Okay, I misremembered, so hopefully your counters will behave well. The problems seem to be the RUGGED concrete color. But the thread is here: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5013208/terrible-experience-with-caesarstone

Slow roasting sounds right up our alley except for the horrible time I’ll have to be awake to put it in the oven so it’s ready for lunch. So for the duck l’orange version I’d put orange in the cavities (I’ve got two ducks - 5 people and one large dog who expects a taste of tasty cooking) and then make some kind of orange sauce, I’m thinking?

So the household has decided on duck for Xmas dinner, specifically roast duck l’orange. I have duck. I have oranges and other basic ingredients. I thought I’d better post here to see if anyone has any special tips or a particular favorite duck l’orange recipe. (Currently the plan is just to go with Julia, although I seem to have copies of two different recipes - one that calls for Madeira and one without.) Definitely will just want to roast the whole duck, people want the presentation, and also no one is that keen on very pink duck anyway, so less risk of overcooking by that standard.

Gorgeous. I’ll link to the forum post in the am, too fiddly to find it on my iPad and I should sleep now anyway.

Oh, keep an eye on the Ceasarstone - on another forum people have been reporting problems like stains from water rings, not even from spills.

There’s a really good roasted garlic and Brie soup recipe that I pinched the flavors from - make a paste of roasted garlic and finely chopped fresh thyme and fresh oregano and a dash of olive oil (just a little) and let it sit for a short time so the flavors blend, then add that to your Brie and bake. (When I did it I made little bite sized parcels of puff pastry, but a whole round would work too.) For a whole round I’d serve with thinly sliced lightly toasted crusty bread. (Just toasted enough for it to have more structure and stand up to oozy cheese.)

I feel like my family recipe has an egg in it, but I don’t have it handy to check. They’re pretty fiddly to make because the dough is generally not what one might call well-behaved. It can be sticky, and is also delicate and prone to tearing, and it should be rolled out quite thin. Our family experience is some people seem to just have the knack and others not so much, regardless of cooking experience. That said, you don’t NEED a fancy rolling pin or griddle or lefse flipping stick, so it’s pretty easy to experiment if you want to give it a try.

I used flat coke as part of the liquid (with orange juice) for carnitas the other day and it was very tasty.

No photos but I threw together pork tenderloin with apples and onions, leeks and cabbage, and some sautéed new potatoes. Turned out pretty tasty, even by the standards of the other folks in the house, who aren't fond of pork. I really didn't have a solid plan when I set out to make dinner - I need to remember that I'm actually halfway decent at cooking.

Excellent. I just got a good deal on more pork so I will probably chuck it all in tomorrow and just top it off if needed. Everyone really liked it so might as well get more use out of all the flavorful components, right?

We have a local Italian bakery my mom loves, but they are very expensive and hard for her to get to. She also really likes cookbooks (she reads them even if she never cooks from them ) so I was thinking for her birthday I could get her a cookbook that has similar cookies and cakes, and offer to make a few things for her on request also. I'll obviously look myself, but eGullet is always well informed about the quality of cookbooks so I wanted to know if anyone has any recommendations. The thing about the Italian bakery is that the stuff they make seems to me to be not as sweet as classic American recipes, and often have more complex flavors and also are usually on the light end for whatever the item is. (Like even something that's intended to be dense doesn't have a very heavy sensation in the mouth.)

'Same as you, probably. We're not having dinner at home so the cider will be for in the evening. But it lets people do as much or little booze as they want, which works with our crowd. One of these days I want to experiment with spiking a cranberry-cider blend.

Could someone tell me more about what's involved? I'm very curious but also have very very limited candy making experience.